My route
This route follows some very busy roads in hindsight I would have taken longer and seen more if you have the time and you are not racing follow the coast more in Cornwall and Devon and travel the west coast of Scotland.
If you want to follow this buy yourself a cheap map book about 4 inches to the mile that is what I used for the journey through England I bought another map at the Scottish border.
From lands end follow the A30 till it crosses the A3124 after oak Hampton turn left try and stay at north tawton it has all you need if you are unsupported turn onto the A3072/A377 crediton then back on the A3702 go right onto the A361 signs here are rubbish and join the A38 the worst of the traffic for Cornwall and Devon is behind you stay on the 38 to Bristol follow the A4 then the A403 you go along the Avon underneath the Clifton suspension bridge this starts off very nice and is awful before you reach the bridge after the bridge go into chepstow past the castle over the river up a huge circular hill try and get on the B4228 it will take you the forest of dean turn left onto the A4136 after Monmouth take the A466 to Hereford next the A438 for a few miles turn right onto the A4110 at the A4113 turn left then right onto the A488. this may seem long winded but the A49 between Hereford and Shrewsbury is the worst road I have ever seen for cyclists
The A490 is next this will take you to Welshpool somewhere around here found a huge supermarket sold everything even had a pound land inside it. take the A483 to oswestry theirs go onto the B5069 toward Overton left onto the A525 into wrexham there find the b5445 go north into Chester. some advice here all the B+B's are on the other side of the city ask someone as you are passing through. after Chester find the A41 to Birkenhead go right through till you see the mersey ferries sign. They still play ferry across the mersey and sell sandwiches and drinks on the Ferry
Please note Birkenhead and Liverpool are the least cycle friendly places I passed through take care here. Now I went home to do my washing so this part is up to you.
find the A59 to Preston this is not a bad road and I did see places to stay on it, to my mind I wanted to get this bit over as it is pretty boring. take the A6 this crosses some great hills including shap I stayed on this more or less till Carlisle it is up to you if you want to vary this.
The A7 is the old tourist route to Edinburough it is a lovely road at times but can get a bit lonely I stayed on it really a bit to long as it goes a bit to far east a better route would have been toward peebles hindsight is the word I am thinking of.
I have to mention the A720 edinburough bypass I aimed at it as it looked like a good road it does not allow cycles or horse and carts or invalid carriages now that makes it a motorway it should be blue on the map rumor has it the Scots being to tight to buy the emergency lanes, I lost a half a day following bike signs around the city that led nowhere.
Be careful crossing the forth road bridge as the wind feels like it will take you.
This is where I got lost for about 2 hours. you need to find the B917 and the B996 to Perth. at this point I spent some time on the A9 this is a very busy fast road try to find the old road that runs more or less parallel some of this has been turned into a cycle path and if you can find it which I did by accident it goes all the way to Inverness.
A small warning if it is late in the day at this point think about a place to stay as they get thin on the ground away from the towns the Scenery is stunning at this point but it can be very windy.
After Inverness the A9 goes more like a normal A road and crossing the 3 firths is a real pleasure.
The A9 appears to follow the sea at this point don't be fooled some of the highest climbs are in front of you.
Finally remember that when you reach Wick you still have 17 miles to go and these are hard at the end of the day.
If this has helped anyone that is good but go the way that you want to that is what I did